Spontaneous symmetry breaking in self–organizing neural fields
File(s)
Accepted version
Author(s)
Bressloff, Paul C
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
We extend the theory of self-organizing neural fields in order to analyze the joint emergence of topography and feature selectivity in primary visual cortex through spontaneous symmetry breaking. We first show how a binocular one-dimensional topographic map can undergo a pattern forming instability that breaks the underlying symmetry between left and right eyes. This leads to the spatial segregation of eye specific activity bumps consistent with the emergence of ocular dominance columns. We then show how a 2-dimensional isotropic topographic map can undergo a pattern forming instability that breaks the underlying rotation symmetry. This leads to the formation of elongated activity bumps consistent with the emergence of orientation preference columns. A particularly interesting property of the latter symmetry breaking mechanism is that the linear equations describing the growth of the orientation columns exhibits a rotational shift-twist symmetry, in which there is a coupling between orientation and topography. Such coupling has been found in experimentally generated orientation preference maps
Date Issued
2005-10
Date Acceptance
2005-06-06
Citation
Biological Cybernetics: communication and control in organisms and automata, 2005, 93 (4), pp.256-274
ISSN
0340-1200
Publisher
Springer
Start Page
256
End Page
274
Journal / Book Title
Biological Cybernetics: communication and control in organisms and automata
Volume
93
Issue
4
Copyright Statement
Copyright © 2005 Springer-Verlag. This version of the article has been accepted for publication, after peer review (when applicable) and is subject to Springer Nature’s AM terms of use, but is not the Version of Record and does not reflect post-acceptance improvements, or any corrections. The Version of Record is available online at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00422-005-0002-3
Identifier
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00422-005-0002-3
Publication Status
Published
Date Publish Online
2005-09-29